Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim, imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since July 2002, has been ordered released by a federal judge who said Hatim’s confessions of being a terrorist were tainted by torture. U.S. officials have insisted Hatim was part of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, but District Judge Ricardo Urbina said this claim could not substantiated because the statements Hatim made while under arrest in Kandahar were extracted through beatings and threats of rape. Six months later he was shipped to Guantánamo, where he has remained since.
Washington officials claimed Hatim trained at the al-Farouq terrorist camp, stayed at al-Qaeda safe houses, and fought against U.S. and coalition forces at the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001.
In his court opinion, Urbina, who days earlier dropped charges against Blackwater guards in a Baghdad massacre case, said: “[T]he government faces a steep uphill climb in attempting to persuade the court that the petitioner’s detention is justified based on the allegation that he trained at al-Farouq, given that the sole evidence offered in support of that allegation is tainted by torture.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Gitmo Confession Tainted by Torture, Judge Says (by Avery Fellow, Courthouse News Service)
Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim et al v. Barack Obama (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) (pdf)
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